Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Rinodina sophodes (Ach.) A.Massal. [=Lichen sophodes Ach.]

Description : Thallus corticolous, lignicolous, terricolous, saxicolous or lichenicolous; crustose to subsquamulose, thick, thin or evanescent, whitish, pale- to dark-grey, ochraceous, brown or yellow, continuous, cracked or areolate, plane, granular or warted, rarely sorediate, blastidiate or isidiate, with or without a limiting, entire, dark prothallus. Photobiont green, trebouxioid. Ascomata apothecia, lecanorine, biatorine or rarely lecideine, innate, adnate or sessile, usually frequent, contiguous or scattered, disc brown to black, rarely pruinose, plane or convex at maturity, margins entire or crenulate, persistent or excluded at maturity. Cortex of thalline exciple distinctly prosoplectenchymatous or rarely paraplectenchymatous or indistinct. I+ blue or I−. Hymenium colourless. Hamathecium of paraphyses, swollen at apices, forming a red-brown, brown to rarely a dark-brown or blue-green epithecium, occasionally with enlarged oil cells (Poelt & Pelleter 1984). Hypothecium colourless, rarely brownish to dark-brown. Asci Lecanora -type or, more rarely, Bacidia -type (Rambold et al. 1994), 8-spored. Ascospores brown, 1- or 3-septate, rarely submuriform at maturity, with differing internal wall thickening following two types of ontogeny (Giralt & Mayrhofer 1994b, 1995; Matzer & Mayrhofer 1996): type A when insertion of septum occurs before apical wall thickenings become distinct; type B when insertion of septum occurs after apical wall thickenings become distinct; torus well-developed or indistinct, Conidiomata pycnidia, not common. Conidia bacillar.

Rinodina, included in the family Physciaceae nom. cons. (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), is a widespread genus of c. 300 species worldwide (Sheard 2004). Saxicolous taxa of Rinodina from New Zealand were discussed by Mayrhofer (1983) who also prepared a general account of the genus in New Zealand (Mayrhofer 1985). Subsequently, several papers have appeared dealing with taxa occurring in New Zealand, including Mayrhofer et al. (1990), Matzer & Mayrhofer (1994, 1996), Matzer et al. (1998), Trinkaus et al. (1999), Mayrhofer & Lambauer (2004) and Kaschik (2006) for saxicolous taxa. The corticolous taxa (see Magnusson (1947) for much useful information) are still rather poorly understood in New Zealand although much recent work is now being done on Northern Hemisphere populations (Giralt 1994; Giralt & Matzer 1994; Giralt & Mayrhofer 1994a, 1994b, 1995; Giralt et al. 1994, 1995, 1997; Mayrhofer & Moberg 2002b; Sheard & Mayrhofer 2002; Sheard 2004), and Australian temperate corticolous species are discussed in Mayrhofer et al. (1999). Twenty-five species are recorded here from New Zealand, though at least four additional taxa (see below) are known (Kaschik 2006). Several taxa (R. lecideina, R. otagensis, R. proprior, R. tubulata) formerly treated in Rinodina (Mayrhofer 1985) are now referred to Amandinea (q.v.). A detailed discussion of diagnostic characters used in species discrimination in Rinodina is given in Sheard & Mayrhofer (2002). For discussion and illustration of spore types in Rinodina see Mayrhofer (1985), Mayrhofer & Moberg (2002b), Sheard (2004) and Kaschik (2006). Corticolous and lignicolous populations of Rinodina in New Zealand were recently studied by Christiane Edler (2002), with at least two undescribed taxa discovered here. A monograph of saxicolous taxa occurring in Australasia has recently appeared (Kaschik 2006) and details 18 taxa from New Zealand. Unfortunately at late proof stage, it was not possible to include four additional taxa here (viz.: Rinodina hertelii Kachik,  R. moziana (Nyl.) Zahlbr.,  R. moziana var. parasitica Kaschik & H.Mayrhofer  R. oxydata (A.Massal.) A.Massal).